Choice of Finance in an Emerging Market: the Impact of Independent Decisions Politics and Religion

Abstract

This paper is based on a KONDA 1 Research and Consultancy 2 survey conducted in May 2014 on 2607 people forming a representative sample of the Turkish population. It focuses on how people’s religious and political characteristics impact the independence of their decision making regarding saving and borrowing. An earlier study by Davutyan and Ozturkkal (2016) reports saving and borrowing decisions strongly correlate with income, education, marital status and region within country. Furthermore, 54% of those surveyed did not save and the main motivation for those who saved was to finance children’s education or home purchase. Religious people and those with a conservative lifestyle are less likely to borrow from family and friends. Older, married and working individuals are more likely to have difficulty paying back loans. According to the results of this survey, religious individuals are less likely to independently decide on their investment choices. Thus, religious people tend to make investment decisions together with family, elderly and respected relatives.